


Sweet Summer Child

by coolgirl3890



Category: Naruto
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Kid Fic, M/M, Mild Smut, Other, Parent Umino Iruka, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Post-Naruto Time Skip | Naruto Shippuden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29709510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolgirl3890/pseuds/coolgirl3890
Summary: Iruka tells his daughter about the first time he met Kakashi.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 9
Kudos: 93





	Sweet Summer Child

**Author's Note:**

> Something about dealing with the trauma of living through a world-wide pandemic really makes you want to return to the interests you had as a teen. On the bright side, liking Naruto isn't cringe anymore.
> 
> Special thanks to @Malakia for being this story's beta and @mandapandabug and @seekingsquake for the last minute touch-ups! Check them out if you are also returning to your Naruto phase due to quarantine!
> 
> On with the story!

"I'm home."

Silence was the expected and given response, yet it wasn't too long ago when his voice would have been met with the pitter patter of little feet running to the front door to eagerly greet him. On the rare occasion that his husband arrived home before him, he would be greeted with a masked kiss after getting tackled for a hug by a small body.

Iruka bent down to slip his sandals off. Vanity made him pause at the mirror hanging in the hallway. Originally it was put there for easier last-minute adjustments to one's person. All it was good for these days was to constantly remind Iruka how old he was getting. Every glance revealed a new wrinkle or strand of gray hair. 

A few years ago, this might've bothered him. These reminders of his increasing age were usually met with a groan and complaint. It didn't help when he compared himself to his older husband, who looked like he hadn't aged a day past thirty, but then he would remember friends and former students who had died long before they reached his age and suddenly, such details didn't matter anymore. Iruka had the privilege of living long enough to see lines drawn onto his face, to see the same happen to many of his loved ones. For that, he would be grateful.

( _It may or may not also have helped when Kakashi would gleefully point out a new gray hair, informing him that they would soon match_.)

Iruka made his way to the kitchen to put away the few groceries he bought on the way home. He was not surprised nor offended to see an occupant sitting in the living room in complete silence. Based on her hunched posture, Iruka knew that his daughter was deeply absorbed in whatever book occupied her lap. The rest of the world was as good as dead to her. 

He fought the urge to grab his daughter's shoulders and fix her posture like he had done so many times in the past. Yasuko was a chunin now and she just returned from an escort mission late last night. She would probably not appreciate the unexpected touch. Instead, Iruka walked past her still form to the kitchen to put away the food, sparing a glance at what had his daughter so enraptured. He let out a sigh when he recognized what it was.

"So your father finally gave you his copy of Icha Icha Paradise." Iruka said, taking out the strawberry mochi he hoped hadn't melted in the ungodly August heat on his walk back home. 

"...Yes."

Iruka paused. The monotoned, lifeless 'yes' peaked his concern. A million theories on what could’ve caused it went through his head. Did the mission not go well? Was it more draining on her than usual?

"How far along in the story are you?" Iruka asked. If this truly was a case of shinobi burnout, he wanted to give Yasuko the chance to open up about it before he started probing.

"...... I just finished it."

There was that same tone of voice again, as if the soul was sucked out of her body. Iruka paused from his chore and looked into the living room from his spot. Yasuko was still in that hunched posture, though now the book laid closed for all to see it's garish, orange cover. Her mop of silver hair hung low around her face, keeping Iruka from seeing her expression. 

"And what did you think of it?"

Her shoulders hitched as if someone threw a kunai in her back. Iruka walked around their dining table and closer to the couch. Not close enough to touch, but close enough that his daughter would have no trouble reaching out to him if she truly needed it. 

"Yasuko? Is something wrong?"

Finally, his little girl looked up at him. Her face held true anguish. Her one, uncovered eye had tears streaming freely from it and her lips trembled with effort to repress her incoming sob. Something was wrong, Yasuko never got this emotional. Iruka took another step forward, bracing himself for the terrible news that could have put Yasuko in such utter distress. She opened her mouth, no doubt about to relay whatever tragedy occured. 

They failed the mission, her teacher was severely injured, or worse, one of her teammates died, or maybe- 

"It was **fucking shit**!" 

The hand wavering above her shoulder fell limp to his side. Was that really it? Were those tears and that gut-wrenching cry all for the sake of smutty literature? Iruka let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and placed a hand over his chest to still his frantically beating heart. 

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Iruka scolded as he made his way back to the kitchen. There was some meat that needed to be placed in the fridge. "I thought something terrible happened!"

"Something terrible did happen!" Yasuko protested, following him into the kitchen. "I hate Dad's favorite book of all time! A book he's been waiting for years to give to me!" 

"It's not a big deal, Yasuko." Iruka said as he reached into the paper bag. "People have different tastes in books."

"It is a big deal!" She insisted. "You don't understand, Dad told me he's been waiting to give me this book since I was born! How he carried it around with him everywhere, even on ANBU missions!" Iruka let his daughter vent her fears while he pulled out the rest of the food. "He woke me up at the crack of dawn and climbed Hokage Rock to give it to me! He had a speech prepared!"

Of course he understood Kakashi's intentions to bequeath his most prized possession to their child. Before she was even born, they had a long discussion on the appropriate age that he could give it to her. Kakashi argued thirteen, as that was the age he was when he began reading it. While Iruka understood how important the novel penned by the legendary Sannin was to his husband, his inner mother-hen put its foot down at willingly letting their daughter read what amounted to softcore porn at such a tender age. He managed to persuade Kakashi to bump it up to sixteen. 

But Iruka paid for it in the end, specifically on the eve of Yasuko’s 16th birthday. Last night, at some unholy hour, Kakashi stayed up and whispered his entire plan on exactly how he was going to present such a treasure to their only child. No matter how many times Iruka told him to shut up and go the fuck to sleep, Kakashi conviently didn't hear him and continued to practice his coming-of-age speech to an unwilling audience ( _now that she mentioned it, Iruka did vaguely remember his husband mentioning wanting to give it to her on top of his head carved into Hokage Rock as he ebbed between sleep and wakefulness_ ). If it turned out Kakashi ended up being as disgustingly poetic as he was last night, he could see why Yasuko thought all of her father's love for her pinned on a single novel.

Murderous intent towards Kakashi swarmed Iruka’s brain as he rearranged some produce to make room for the cut of beef. Leave it to a Hatake to make Icha Icha books a matter of life or death. 

"He's going to come home tonight all happy and ask me what I thought about it!" Yasuko continued to rattle on while Iruka pulled out a carton of most-likely expired milk from the fridge. He took a hesitant whiff of it. Yep, definitely expired. "What am I going to say then?!"

"Ever heard of a white lie?" He suggested as he poured the rest of the curdled dairy down the sink drain. "You should've remembered how to do that from your subterfuge classes."

Yasuko stared at him as if he suggested that she blow up the moon as a distraction. 

"Lie?! You really think the Sixth Hokage won't be able to tell that I'm lying to him?!" Yasuko said slowly to him as if he was a child rather than the goddamn principal of the most prestigious academy in all of the Hidden Leaf Village. "You know he's going to want a detailed explanation on why Icha Icha Paradise is the greatest love story in modern literature! Even if I manage to persuade him that I liked it, he'll just want me to read the rest of the series!"

Well, Iruka couldn't argue with that. Like her father, Yasuko was a genuine bookworm and devoured books at an alarming rate ever since she learned how to read. Frequent bedtime stories and trips to the library only spurred her interest further. Even the home-grown bookshelf Tenzou had gifted to her groaned under the weight of all the books she collected over her lifespan. Iruka could imagine Kakashi wanting to start a two person bookclub on the Icha Icha series if Yasuko ended up loving it as much as he did. But the sad truth was that no one could ever love dime novel bodice rippers as much as Kakashi did. No one with taste, that is. 

Grocery bag now empty, Iruka placed it under the sink because apparently that's what you do when you own a house and have a family. It happily joined its brothers and sisters, settling next to the cleaning supplies. 

"You're right, Yasuko." Iruka said flatly. Maybe if he repeated her irrational fears to her, she would see how flimsy they stood up to reality. "After sixteen years of raising you, you'll be disowned and your name stricken from the family records because you didn't think a trashy romance novel was the best thing to ever grace this earth."

"Exactly!" She groaned and buried her face in her hands. Meanwhile, Iruka got out a kettle to start making some tea. Something calming to ease Yasuko's nerves. Though at the rate she was going, a sedative would have been more helpful. 

"I can go rogue," came a muffled voice. "Disappear somewhere far away. Suna maybe? I can live with sand."

"Yasuko-"

"No, it's way too hot this time of year. What about the Hidden Mist Village? It rains a lot there so Dad can't send the ninken after me."

"Yasuko-"

"Better yet, I can ask Uncle Naruto to send me on a long-term mission. S rank, top secret, deep undercover." She suddenly spun around to him. "How long do you think it'll take Dad to forget he gave me the book? A few years? Ten is my best guess."

"Yasuko-" 

She held up a hand in a silencing gesture. "Don't try and stop me, I've already made up my mind. I promise I'll write once enough time has passed. I'll even send postcards-"

"Yasuko!" His daughter's ramblings stopped for a blissful moment. "Come outside and help me pick the tomatoes."

A single, black eye blinked at his request. Whether it was due to Iruka using his no-nonsense school teacher voice or the sudden change of topic, Yasuko nodded and quietly followed him. 

The Hatake compound was by no means big, at least compared to what the more prominent clans in the Hidden Leaf had, but going from living in apartments with leaky plumbing to a property that spanned an acre of empty land left Iruka at a loss on what to do with so much space. Thus began his ambitious gardening project. 

What started as a few potted plants on the back porch that overlooked the debilitated remnants of an ornamental courtyard grew into a sizable garden that was host to various fruits and vegetables across the seasons. Cracked stone pathways and rotting wooden structures were gone and made way for rows of flowers and herbs that could be used for cooking and medicine. When those didn't wither away into dust under his hand, Iruka grew confident enough to start planting vegetables and fruits the following year.

In the distance, Iruka looked over at the sad remains of training dummies abused past their usefulness. Every time he saw them, he told himself he needed to throw them away once and for all. Everytime he tried, memories of him and Kakashi guiding tiny hands and feet through various training exercises would replay and Iruka would convince himself to leave it for another day.

Iruka bent down briefly to grab a basket nearby the door. Yasuko trailed after him, having picked up another basket along the way. They would need it. Whether it was due to the quality of the seeds he bought from Ino or something in the soil, his tomato plants grew like weeds and bore enough fruit to feed a small army. Whatever their family couldn't eat would go to colleagues and friends, who were probably getting sick of the frequent deliveries at this point. 

Iruka knelt down in front of the plant, ignoring the slight _creak_ from his knees. His daughter followed suit. Yasuko’s eye kept darting back and forth from him to the plant. She knew her father didn’t bring her out here just to gather fruit. There was a reason, but she was either too afraid or too frazzled to ask him what it was. Iruka decided she was kept wondering for long enough and finally spoke.

"Did I ever tell you how your father and I met?"

She turned her gaze from a not-yet-ripe tomato to look at him quizzically. "You worked at the mission desk, yeah? Dad would hand in mission reports and you would complain about his awful handwriting-" Iruka smiled at that. Kakashi's chicken scratch was infamous, "-then you got to know each other better when Uncle Naruto became his student."

"That's the gist of it, yes, but we were still just acquaintances until one incident in particular. Shortly after that, we started dating.” A decade ago, this statement would've been met with an overdramatic gagging noise. But Yasuko was long past the age of pretending to be disgusted by her fathers' affection for each other.

Iruka had a brief internal debate on whether his kid was ready to hear this. This was not a story for the weak of heart. To the very few people he trusted enough to tell this to, it forever changed their perception of Kakashi and him, for better or for worse. Then he remembered that Kakashi felt their daughter was ready to read a novel that often got shoved to the shady corner of bookstores out of common decency and came to the decision that she absolutely was.

Sensing a tale coming on, Yasuko rearranged herself until she was sitting cross-legged on the grass. She propped her chin up in her hands and turned to face Iruka. Her full attention was now on him. 

"I have a feeling this is going to be good.” 

Iruka felt a surge of bittersweetness wash over him. He always enjoyed telling his child these little stories about her parents. It was something he wished he asked his parents about when they were still alive. So unlike himself and Kakashi, Yasuko grew up hearing how her parents expressed their love for each other. Their first date, embarrassing nicknames they had for each other, when they first moved in together, the days leading up to their wedding. Now this would be another thing she learned.

"It happened the day your father announced he was nominating his team for the Chunin exams. I was against it. I thought they weren't ready, but it was my opinion against his, an elite jounin. He shot me down harshly." At the time, Iruka was downright furious. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were talented kids, but they were still newly-minted genin. To think they were ready for a potential promotion to chunin status after a handful of D and C rank missions was pure foolishness on Kakashi’s part, or so he thought. "Yet when my shift at the Tower ended, guess who I see leaning against the wall outside?" 

Kakashi Hatake, bane of Konoha's enemies and Mission Desk workers. Iruka had initially walked past him, barely even noticing him or his well-loved copy of Icha Icha Paradise. Yet much to Iruka's shock and dismay, Kakashi noticed him. Nose still buried in his book, the grey-haired jounin followed after him. 

“He started walking next to me. Before I had the chance to tell him as politely as possible to fuck off, he asked me why I thought Naruto and his teammates weren’t ready for the Chunin exams. Not once while he was talking did he put down that stupid book.”

Many others wouldn’t have been offended by this behavior from Kakashi. They would’ve most likely have brushed it off as one of the laid-back jounin’s many quirks. To Iruka, it was a blatant form of disrespect, that he was not even worth the effort of looking in the eyes. 

“I asked him why he even wanted my opinion as he clearly didn't respect me. He played the idiot card and said, 'What makes you think I don't respect you?'. I said it was very obvious since he wouldn't even put his book down long enough to speak to me.” Though Iruka had kept his voice calm at the time, he was positively fuming on the inside. How dare Kakashi play him as a fool! All he wanted was to ensure the safety of his former students!

“Then your father smiled, you know, _that_ smile, and said if I was reading his book then I wouldn’t want to put it down either. And for whatever reason, I thought it was a good idea to tell him that I did in fact read it-”

Yasuko scrunched up her face in disgust. "You willingly read that book?"

"When I was a genin." Iruka clarified. “Back in my day-" ( _oh gods, did he just say that? He really was getting old!)_ \- "A genin was considered an adult under the law. That meant you could technically buy 'adult' stuff." 

But that didn't mean people wouldn't judge you as a try-hard punk-ass if you walked around with an unlit cigarette hanging from your mouth before you've even hit puberty. Iruka certainly did.

"I was too embarrassed to buy the raunchy magazines so I settled for the next, best thing. Yet even with all the smut in it, it was the most boring thing I'd ever read. I managed to finish it, but it was a struggle to get past the first chapter." He had only been able to power through it because of the deep denial that he was experiencing buyer's remorse. That and the store he bought it from had a strict no-return policy. "-And I had no problem telling your father all of that."

"How did he react?"

A broad smile tugged at Iruka's cheeks. He did not possess the Sharingan, but he could perfectly recall what happened next.

"Well, he closed his book. I was thinking, 'Oh good, we're going to have a conversation about what happened like adults now'. Instead, he looked at me as if I just admitted to drowning puppies in my spare time. Then, in the most horrified voice, said 'You read Icha Icha Paradise? You, the straight-laced sensei… and thought it was boring?!'" 

Kakashi Hatake owed his prowess in battle to many things, one of them being his ability to keep calm and collected even under the most trying circumstances. It turned out that all it took for the former Captain of the ANBU and Master of a Thousand Jutsus to throw all that out the window was some mild criticism of his favorite novel. It was good fortune that no enemy had ever found out about this fatal and exploitable flaw. 

Yasuko let out a snicker, the first of many no doubt. "What happened next?"

What happened next? That was when all Hell broke loose and Iruka’s life never knew a moment of peace again.

“He started shouting loud enough to be heard from the Stone country about how underrated Icha Icha Paradise was." Iruka said, exasperated even after all this time. "Then he went on about how the series as whole was underrated and a credit to the romance genre. I believe the word he called it was 'thematically resonant'".

Even after all these years, Iruka could remember word-for-word Kakashi's (very vocal) opinions on Icha Icha. What had stuck out the most to the teacher was how surprisingly animated the Copy Nin became, as if a dissenting thought of his precious novel sparked the life back into him.

"Didn’t you try to shut him up?" Yasuko must've had a hard time believing her strict headmaster father would let such nonsense continue. 

Iruka had tried, he really did. But Kakashi was relentless in his assault and all poor Iruka had to defend himself with were some vague memories of a book he read when he was thirteen. "Trust me when I say I did, but then he whipped out his book again to quote from it… in the middle of a busy street, no less. He would stop every so often to ask me, 'How could **that** be boring?!'.”

Iruka's pleas for Kakashi to stop went unheard and he continued to read his bad porn outloud, character voices and explicit noises included. 

Iruka shook his head at the memory. "The worst part was when he stopped reading only to ask me what kind of crazy sex life I had that made Icha Icha seem so bland in comparison." 

By now, Yasuko’s face was as red as the tomatoes as she fought to suppress her laughter. It was a valiant effort, but she succumbed to it just like everyone else who Iruka told this story to. 

"H-How did you not end up murdering him?" She managed to wheeze out. 

"Other than the fact that he's killed more people than I've had home-cooked meals in my life and that I would've been forced to become a missing-nin if he died? Every ounce of self-control I had and the reminder that Naruto would be without a teacher if he wound up dead." But oh, how tempting of a thought it was at the time! "No, instead I started walking away faster to escape the conversation." 

A fatal move on his part. You didn't try to outrun wild animals unless you wanted to be marked as prey. It was no different with jounin. 

"Then he started walking faster to catch up with me. I kept trying to outpace him, so he walked even faster. Next thing I know, we're sprinting across the village." 

Shinobi races were not an uncommon sight at all, the key word being race. No, for Iruka, this was a mad dash for what felt like his life. All pretense of reason and dignity were gone and pure survival instinct had taken over, his adrenaline system going into overdrive. Anything to get away from this madman who spouted erotica quotes as he chased him through the streets and rooftops. He must have gone through half of his chakra reserves that night trying to get away but Kakashi, with his superior chakra control and too-damn long legs, was able to reach him. 

"When he caught up to me, he kept begging me to give it another chance now that I was 'of a more mature mind'. He went as far as to offer me his personal copy."

Bizarre as it was, Iruka was genuinely flattered by the gesture ( _or maybe it was the adrenaline high getting to his head_ ). Everyone, even desk shinobi, knew of the crazy jounin’s reading habits and how nothing short of the apocalypse would separate Kakashi from his porn. For him to offer it to Iruka was akin to a dying man in the desert offering his comrade the last few sips of water from his canteen. Nevertheless, he rejected it which only spurned the Copy-Nin to argue further.

“This went on the entire way home. I’m pretty sure he was lecturing me on how the BDSM was a metaphor of the characters’ willful ignorance of society’s wrongdoings when we reached my apartment.” 

Iruka had thanked every spirit and god that ensured none of his neighbors were outside when Kakashi said, in an uncharacteristically loud voice, "The ropes, the blindfolds, sensei! The author didn’t include them just for pleasure!" as he followed him to his door. Clearly it was only through divine intervention that he didn't die of embarrassment that day. 

Yasuko had been forced to cover her mouth lest her cackling be heard throughout the entire village. Even as they walked back to the house, her laughter could barely be contained. “H-He followed you? Into your apartment? To talk about b-b-bondage?!”

As amusing of a twist that would be for his tale, Iruka swore he put his mischievous ways in the past and dedicated himself to the truth. “No, just my door. I refused to let him into my house, as you can imagine. I told him goodnight and slammed the door in his face.”

And proceeded to treat himself to a few cups of sake he kept for especially stressful situations, but his teenage daughter didn’t need to know that. 

Now in the safety of their home, Yasuko was in an uproar. Once the tomatoes were safely on the counter, she hunched over and descended into a fit of giggles that went on for far too long. Iruka patiently waited for it to die down to a reasonable level.

Tears were in her eyes when she uncurled herself. "What happened next? Please tell me he didn't try to break in!"

"Nope, nothing else that night. Next day was normal too, until I came home from the Academy. I walked into my living room and heard a tap at my window-” He didn’t have to look to know who it was. Deep down, Iruka knew Kakashi wouldn’t let him rest. “-and there perched outside looking like a scarecrow with a bad hair day was your father. I barely managed to open it before he goes, ‘Yo, let’s continue our debate over drinks tonight. I bet I can convince you to give the sequel a try.’”

“And you said yes.” Yasuko finished.

Iruka nodded. “And I said yes.” 

A pause, then, “Why did you go?” 

It was an understandable question, one that Iruka took his time to think about as he washed the tomatoes. He made Kakashi out to be a nuisance at best and an eccentric pervert at worst. A more rational person would've slammed the window on his face and possibly filed for a restraining order. Yet despite that being the logical course of action, Iruka took the risk and indulged him that night. 

"It's hard to pin down one reason." Iruka admitted. "Your father was always so secretive, that's why more people knew him by his nicknames than by his real name. To see him throw away his nonchalant persona like that was… endearing." 

Yasuko was looking at him as if he was crazy (which was more of a given than a possibility at this point in his life), so he clarified further. "Jounin are crazy, as you probably know by now. It comes with the job, and every jounin has their own way of coping with the stress. Your father... he dealt with it by distancing himself from everyone. He may seem loving and touchy now, but back then... well, let's just say he had a different reputation.” 

Iruka continued. "When he approached me, chased me, debated with me about the book, I took it as just another jounin quirk, but then I remembered that this was Kakashi. He distanced himself. Well, I thought that maybe he was opening up to me in a way. He cared about my opinion on this trashy novel he loved. I decided to accept the date."

“So it was a date?”

“Well, I didn’t know for sure, but then-” Iruka ducked his head when he felt a blush creep up his cheeks, “-we talked about more than just the book.” And certainly done a lot more too after a few more ‘bar debates’. But he wasn’t going to tell that to his daughter. 

His answer seemed to satisfy Yasuko who was currently rubbing her cheeks, excessive laughter making them sore. "So Icha Icha Paradise brought you guys together?"

"In a way-" There was much more to the story of how their love blossomed throughout the years, the trials and tribulations they faced together, but that was for another day, "-so trust me when I of all people say that he will not be angry at you for rightfully thinking his book is trash. In a weird way, it might even bring you closer." 

Yasuko shrugged half-heartedly. "Maybe; it's just-I wanted-he looked so excited to give it to me." She said, voice going soft. "He probably thought I would actually like it. I know how special that book is to him."

It was moments like these that Iruka was reminded how much his daughter was like her father. Physically, they shared those coal black eyes and that mane of grey hair that no comb could tame. Personality-wise, both could be aloof and guard their emotions closely. But those closest to them knew they loved so deeply, so fiercely and would do anything to keep the people they loved safe and happy.

With an exasperated but fond smile, Iruka closed the gap between him and his daughter to pull her into a hug. He kissed the top of her head, the faint smell of dirt and sweat lingering in her hair.

"The fact that you read the entire thing in one day and got devastated over not liking it shows just how much you wanted to." Iruka indulged himself with another hug. When had Yasuko gotten so tall? "He didn't want a kid just so he could have a mini-clone of himself. One of the best things about being a parent is getting to see your child grow into their own person, and we are very proud of the young woman you are today." 

Did it sound cheesy when he said it out loud? Absolutely, but every word of it was true. Against his shoulder, he could feel Yasuko’s mouth break into a smile. 

When they pulled away, Iruka nudged her in the direction of the hallway. "Go take a shower, we'll have some tea when you get out. Your hair stinks."

Yasuko groaned, a sound Iruka was all too familiar with as a teacher to pre-genin and adoptive father to Naruto. Still, she trudged her way to the bathroom. "I swear I washed it last night!" She exclaimed, Iruka chuckling as he watched her disappear.

The rest of the afternoon passed by uneventfully. They talked over tea about Iruka's day at the academy ("Some dumbass kid had the bright idea to use a fire jutsu during chemistry class") and Yasuko's plans with her friends for her birthday tonight ("We want to try out that new karaoke place"). Afterwards, they made dinner together. 

Their peace went undisturbed until the front door creaked open and a deep, smooth voice called out, "I'm home!"

Iruka had to give the academy credit where it was due, as he could see Yasuko's eye bounce around the house as she marked all possible exits. 

"You came back just in time! Dinner is ready!" Iruka called out, snatching Yasuko's wrist before she could perform a teleportation jutsu. Unfortunately for her, he would personally make sure she did not escape. He only released it once she resigned herself to her fate. She began setting the table with him.

Moments later, Kakashi came through the archway. He greeted his family the same way he did for over a decade. First, he would ruffle Yasuko's hair. Second, go over to Iruka to give him a chaste kiss on the cheek. Third, let Iruka unzip his flak jacket and not complain when he threw it on the nearest piece of furniture. Fourth, if he was feeling especially bold, secretly pinch Iruka’s butt ( _Today was one of those bold days_ ). 

Iruka knew the tentative peace was going to end once he saw Kakashi's eye glance over at the abandoned Icha Icha Paradise book lying on the couch. He could see the flicker of excitement in his husband's eyes, but he resisted immediately asking for their daughter's opinion. He sat down at the table with the rest of them and got through a few bites to eat before he calmly broached the topic.

"You finished it?"

Chopsticks stopped midway to Yasuko’s mouth. "...Uh, yeah."

"What did you think?" 

Yasuko skillfully avoided answering right away by stuffing her face with food until her cheeks bulged. 

"Oh, you know," she said around a mouthful of rice. A glare from Iruka made her swallow her food before continuing, "if I had to describe it with one word, it would be… unexpected." 

"But did you like it?" Kakashi asked, cutting right to the chase. 

Yasuko once again stalled by gulping down some water. Iruka had a brief moment of pity for his daughter. There was no escape from this. A pair of black eyes and a pair of brown eyes watched her expectantly. 

With a single breath, she spoke.

"It was shit, okay! It was complete, utter shit! The plot is filled with so many cliches and overused tropes, the romance scenes felt forced as hell, the sex scenes were absolute cringe, and the characters, oh God don't get me started on the characters! Did the author ever talk to a human woman before? Even the men had all the personality of a piece of cardboard, and they were the best-written characters! I mean I'll give credit where credit is due! The world building was intricate, there was some level of character development towards the end of the book where they could almost pass as likeable and the scenery was beautifully described but that got ruined when the chapter cuts back to describing the heroine's heaving bosom or the main character's gigantic bulge for the next five pages! Overallitwasjust **shit**!"

Like a passing thunderstorm, Yasuko's rant was over. The only sound that filled the room was heavy panting, as if she just finished running 500 laps around the village with Gai. Iruka was just about to get up to retrieve the shock blanket he kept for emergencies when another sound cut through the air like a knife.

Kakashi was laughing. While still chuckling, said, “What a coincidence, that’s exactly what I think about it too!” 

Then, as if he hadn't dropped a massive bomb on his family, asked Iruka, "Dear, could you pass the soy sauce?"

Iruka didn't immediately comply, Yasuko and him were too busy trying to piece together everything they thought to be true about the man they called father or husband. For all his genius, Kakashi remained blissfully ignorant as the silence dragged on. He only noticed when he didn't receive the requested soy sauce, looking genuinely perplexed by their bewildered faces. "Hm? Is something wrong?"

"But it's your favorite book of all time." Yasuko pointed out.

Kakashi shrugged. "I never said my tastes in books were good. I'm allowed to have guilty pleasures."

“One of our very first arguments was about that book.” Iruka brought up a little indignantly.

His husband of over a decade had the nerve to look offended. "Icha Icha Paradise is many things, but it has **never** been boring." 

Iruka decided now was the appropriate time to lose his composure. He groaned loudly, rubbing his temples when he felt a migraine coming on.

"Remind me why I decided it was a good idea to marry you."

"I gladly would, but our daughter is present." 

Yasuko choked on her food, saving herself from an untimely demise by gulping down the remaining water from her glass. Iruka fought down the urge to lunge over the table and strangle his beloved. And Kakashi, well, Kakashi just stretched his arm out until he grabbed the previously-requested soy sauce. 

The silence returned, albeit less tense this time, as dinner slowly returned to normal. Yasuko pointedly kept her eyes down on her plate, reacting as any teenager would when faced with the reality that their parents had sex. 

"You know, if you liked the world building in Icha Icha-" ( _Iruka was briefly amazed that Kakashi managed to make out anything from Yasuko's near-incoherent rant_ ) "-you might like The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi." Kakashi said as he drizzled the sauce over his tomatoes. "It has a lot more action scenes and less, um, you know. It was the author's first book so his writing style wasn't quite established yet, but you might want to give it a shot." 

Yasuko glanced up at her father with a relieved smile. "Maybe I will."

Several knocks on the door signalled for Yasuko's departure. She hastily gathered up her dishes to put in the sink, bid goodbye to her parents, and went out the door, greeted by the boisterous voices of her teammates.

Once again, the house was silent. Iruka gathered the empty plates and walked over to the kitchen to wash them. The one negative of not living alone anymore was that dishes could not be left in the sink overnight.

Familiar footsteps came from behind as he was elbow-deep in soapy water. Warm arms slipped around his waist. The tips of Kakashi's hair tickled at Iruka's nose as he nuzzled his face into his neck. 

"Maa, I don't recall giving Yasuko permission to grow up so fast." 

Iruka smiled as he turned off the faucet. "I thought you were the most eager out of the two of us to see her grow up, with all that effort you put into giving her Jiraiya's novel."

“It was my only solace for when she became a teenager." Kakashi lamented. "It feels like only yesterday that she was sitting on my lap in the Hokage Tower."

Iruka remembered that too. Many photo albums were filled with pictures of Yasuko in the Hokage Office throughout the years. “I never took you for the sentimental type. Then again, you did cry when Yasuko left for her first C rank mission.” 

Kakashi had been inconsolable that day. Kakashi, who would scoff at Iruka when he would rush over to their baby if she fell or bumped her head, had to be physically restrained from dashing out the door and hunting down her team. 

He fared no better at night, clinging to Iruka and using him as a human-sized tissue to soak up his tears. That was when Iruka decided to switch his tactics from comforting words to climbing on top of his husband and riding him until he was crying for an entirely different reason. 

Kakashi huffed at the mention, arms squeezing his waist tight in retaliation. "My reaction was entirely appropriate considering how my first C rank mission with a genin team went." 

Iruka patted his husband's hand in a comforting gesture. Kakashi's confession added new context to that lingering hug he gave her just before she left. Yasuko was the one who pulled away in the end. "I'm sure it was. Now, make yourself useful and help me with these dishes. They aren't going to clean themselves."

Instead of letting go, Kakashi pulled their bodies flush and began to grind his hips against Iruka's ass. "May I repay you for dinner in a different capacity?" He asked in a husky voice. 

How many times did Kakashi use sex as a bribe to get out of cleaning dishes? Enough that Iruka lost count. Perhaps the number wouldn't have been so high if he hadn't accepted nearly every time it was offered. 

Iruka swiveled his hips so that he could turn to face his lover. Kakashi's hand joined Iruka's as they both pulled down his mask. Even after all these years, he savoured looking at the face so few ever got to see. 

With an appreciative hum, Iruka leaned forward. Kakashi moved his hands down his husband's arms as Iruka's soapy fingers caught in his unruly hair, pulling him into a searing kiss. Iruka moaned in approval as Kakashi's mouth moved from his lips to his neck, his body lightly rolling against his own in a manner that always made Iruka dizzy with desire. 

"Kakashi, we should..." Kakashi silenced his partner with his lips, using his still-open mouth to slip in his tongue. Mouths still attached to one another, Iruka placed his hands on Kakashi's chest to push him towards their bedroom. This was met with resistance. He was pushed back against the counter. 

"Let's do it here, right here in the kitchen." Kakashi whispered eagerly into his ear. "Like we used to when we first got married." 

Iruka was thoroughly tempted. If there was a downside to having a kid, it was that they couldn't fuck over every horizontal surface whenever they pleased. But now, now was different. Yasuko wouldn't be back until late. They had all the time in the world. 

Still, he had to admonish Kakashi for such a risque suggestion if only for the fun of it. He raised his hand to the man's face to cradle it, letting his thumb trace his scar. 

"You are one dirty pervert, Mr. Hatake-Umino."

Kakashi's smile was radiant, crinkled eyes and laugh lines making it all the more gorgeous. 

"And that's why you married me."

**FIN**


End file.
